But this article is about D/s and usually connected with erotic attitudes, which can be hard to document, especially in cultures where one gender or another is presumed to be inherently dominant. It can be sometimes hard to tell if one submits because it is pleasurable or for more practical reasons, such as food and shelter.

Still, there are many writings from ancient times through modern times that would clearly indicate a willingness to submit for purely romantic reasons.

A somewhat later example is European courtly love, a medieval ideal wherein a Knight served his courtly lady (ie, love service) with the same obedience and loyalty which he owed to his liege lord. This act was definitely submissive, and sometimes became fetishistic, with the Knight performing acts of cross-dressing and self-flagellation.

There are also accounts from the 17th and 18th century of prostitutes in most major European cities that catered to male submissives, as well as masochists. In a male dominated world, it was all too easy for a submissive woman to find a strict male dominant, but some women still found ways to leave husbands who were "too soft".

One of the most famous works related to this issue is Leopold von Sacher-Masoch's Venus im Pelz (Venus in Furs, 1869), in which the protagonist Severin entreats a woman, Wanda, to be her slave and offers to serve her and allow her to degrade him. The book has elements of both social and physical submission, and is the genesis of the term masochism coined by the 19th century psychiatrist Krafft-Ebing.